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Strawberries and "Toads" of all things : )

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Cliff Parker wrote:

<begin snip>

Kevin,

I've planted strawberries in my square foot garden this past year.  I
dedicated three 4' x 12' beds to two june bearing and one ever bearing
variety.  They are planted 1/sq. ft.  to get 48 in a bed.  I've cut
off the runners this year and will allow the runners next year to
replace half the plants (i. e. every other row) in order to keep the
bed rejouvenating itself.  The everbearing produce few runners and are
easy to keep up with.  With the June bearing, I will snip off the
runners until after the june crop and then allow certain runners to
grow and root.

I'm also going to let other runners root in small pots in order to
transplant them into other beds.  This will slowly increase the number
of beds for the strawberries in time. but I've got plenty of room and
am adding beds every year.

<end snip>

My reply:

Thank you for the reply...I noticed your address indicates Longview farm,
I am curious as to what you farm?

I tried the one plant per square foot with both June bearers,
day-neutrals, and ever-bearers and removed the runners on all three...I
was and the strawberries were definitely unhappy with the result...a few
years later I compared twelve inch spacing to 8 inch spacing and found
the 8 inch spacing to work better with the same variety of strawberry...

But frankly my aims are a bit different...I am trying to plant once and
keep the beds in service for an extended period of time...I am not sure,
but I am not convinced, and my gut instincts plus a few experiments make
me wonder, if we really should be ripping out strawberries every two to
three years(in northern areas - in the south they are grown as annuals
anyway)...I am very suspect of the reasons I hear given for this as they
"may" be proper for a commercial planting but seem a bit out of place for
the home gardener...sort of like the "row" logic verses the "square foot"
method we are all adhering to...I have heard rumors of beds going 10-12
years with proper care...I had one bed in service for 6 years that
produced very well for me...I moved away or it may have gone on
longer...the trick I think is to treat each plant like a perennial and
not let it set out runners...there is a lot I could say on this but this
is probably not the proper forum...

One last thing, I would really think twice about using the runners to
start new beds...for once I am in agreement with the general advice out
there...I would obtain virus free new stock for new beds...but then I
don't mind the $7-10 dollars per 25 plants as much as most as I keep mine
around for years anyway   : )

If anyone has any information on keeping strawberries going for an
extended period of time I would appreciate the information...

Lastly if any one happens to be a herpetologist or know a bit more than
average about "toads" I would appreciate a dialog...

And thanks for the comments...

	Very truly yours, Kevin (the fluffy bunny) Mathews

P.S. - Hello Lon, good to see you posting

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